Put on a Show
by CrystalHauntress
Summary: Riven is thought of as cold and heartless. But deep down, he has tons of emotions that he has difficulty expressing. Done for the Five-Things Challenge on WCFC.
1. Fright

**A/N: Happy New Year, everybody! **

**This is going to be a five-chaptered story for the Five Things Challenge on WCFC.**

"That was amazing, Riven!" Musa squeals. She grips Riven's hand as she tightens her jacket around her lithe body. Riven shakes his head; he is not so sure that he agrees with her.

They have just been to see _Gruesome and Gory_, the film that – when it first came out – they were both excited to go and see. But now, Riven doesn't think he sees the amusement in the film. For one thing, it was harsher than he expected it to be. Harsh to the title character, Benjamin; and harsh to almost everyone else. For another, he thinks he has just ruined his reputation. There were endless jump scares and he physically flinched every time.

"Riven?" He hears a soft voice ask. He turns his head to his angel, his princess and manages a small, minute smile. "Are you OK?" Musa asks.

"Yeah." He looks down at the ground as they walk, thinking. "Is it OK if I drop you off to Alfea and then go straight back to Red Fountain?" He asks looking back up at her.

Musa raises an eyebrow. "Yeah, I guess. Why?" She shrugs.

"I just want an early night, that's all." Riven doesn't let on that he is keeping something from her.

The film has scared him. A lot. He doesn't think that he will get a solid night of sleep tonight. Monsters will creep up into his dreams and frighten him senseless. He knows it is unusual for him to get scared so easily, but after the incident last week with Icy and his mother, it is unlikely for him not to jump at the slightest thing.

"Are you sure?" Musa says as they round a bend, getting nearer to their transport home: Riven's wind rider. The near midnight breeze hits them hard and Riven lets go of Musa's hand and wraps his arm round her shoulders. "Is there something you want to tell me?"

"No. No. I'm fine." He shakes his head.

"If you say so," Musa says, clearly not believing him but not pressing the matter either.

* * *

><p>Riven lies on his bed, in the pitch black dark, with his hands behind his head and thinks. It is now nearly quarter to two in the morning and he still hasn't gotten to sleep.<p>

Every time he closes his eyes, all he can see is blood, broken bones and the little boy Benjamin. He sees the young boy screaming as he his thrown into the pit of fire. He sees Benjamin's sister, Belle, crying as she tries to reach him. He sees the torturers with their whips and knives and weapons.

So he keeps his eyes open and listens. He listens to Timmy and Sky sleeping peacefully either side of him. He keeps an eye out for anything that seems out of place. He also doesn't want to sleep for the fear that he doesn't wake up again in the morning. It's what happened in the film; and to his mother.

Thinking about going outside, he slips himself out of bed, trying his hardest not to make a sound. He puts on his Red Fountain uniform over the top of his black t-shirt and shorts. Reaching into his bedside table drawer, he pulls out his flashlight. He hasn't used it in ages; he hasn't needed to. The dark never used to scare him. But tonight, he thinks he'll keep it in his hands, just in case. After all, you can never be too sure about what's lurking in the darkness. Switching it on briefly to make sure it works, he slips out of his room, closing the door softly behind him.

The hallways are not pitch black dark and not that bright either. There are torches hung on the walls every few metres. Riven puts his flashlight in his pocket and then crosses his arms across his chest. He tries to appear defiant in case a student or one of the professors are around, in which case he will have to make them believe he is OK. Even so, he cannot stop himself from glancing around cautiously, trying to make sure that no monster of any sort is watching him.

Getting out of the Red Fountain campus, he starts walking, constantly on the lookout for anything that he deems suspicious.

A path is lit up in front of him, as if trying to guide him in the right direction. He looks up at the sky, half expecting it to be the stars. Except, there are no stars out. Not even a single one. The sky is a deep blue with no moon to light it up.

It unnerves Riven. So much so that he starts running. He runs in the direction of the path to see where it leads him. To see whether it was a good idea or not. He thinks he made a mistake when he dropped Musa off at Alfea. Thinking about it, he wouldn't have minded telling her what is bothering him. He wouldn't have minded having her hug him close and tell him not to worry.

The path leads him into a forest. It gets considerably darker so he fumbles in his pocket as he runs. He fishes out his flashlight, flicking the switch on the side. A golden yellow glow comes out of the front of it, causing Riven to break out into a relieved grin. He slows his pace into a walk again.

He can't help but think about the film, though it is one thing that he wants to bury deep into the back of his mind. He curses under his breath as he sees the green-eyed, big-clawed demon in his head. Even though he knows that the film is fiction and the monsters, torture and even little Benjamin are not real, he can't help but shine his flashlight in every direction just to make sure he is alone. He breathes out. Regardless, a little niggling part of him is still shaking with apprehension.

He makes it out of the forest and – getting a little tired of walking for so long – leans his back against a tree. He wipes the back of his hand across his forehead. He then sits with his back still against the tree.

Closing his eyes, he does his best to think of his happiest moments with his music princess. Like the time when the story of Bloom and Sky's totally failed date had them in hysterics and the time when they pranked everyone into thinking they were going to become parents.

He laughs slightly at the memory and can't help but think for a second that he wants that to become a reality.

Suddenly, a voice pushes itself into his thoughts and he can do nothing to get it back out again.


	2. Grief

**A/N: I forgot to mention last chapter that my prompt for the challenge was 'the five times that Riven let his tough side go'.**

"_Riven… Riven… Listen to me, Riven…" _a ghostly voice whispers.

Riven sits up straight and snaps his eyes open. He delves in his pocket for his flashlight (which he'd put back after making it out of the forest). He flicks the switch and turns it on. Looking around, he frowns when there is no-one there. He looks behind him and his frown gets deeper when he finds that he is utterly and entirely alone.

He grumbles, switches the flashlight off, puts his hands behind his head and closes his eyes. He sighs – somewhat contentedly – and tries to get back to his earlier level of thought.

"_Riven… I'm waiting for you, Riven. Come and find me…"_

Again, Riven opens his eyes. Going through the process of turning the flashlight on and looking around, the confused specialist stands up.

"_Riven… please… listen to me…"_

"Listen, if anyone's there, it won't hurt to show your face, you know!" Riven calls irritably.

Nothing. Riven listens out for any sort of reply but he is met with silence. Sighing, he makes to go back to Red Fountain but…

"_Please, Riven… please… I'm begging you…"_

Riven turns around to punch his fist into the tree, out of anger and confusion. But, pausing to listen again, he realizes that he knows that voice. It is a very familiar voice. He has been hearing it for most of his life.

His mother's voice. But… his mother is… dead. She was killed by Icy in a brutal battle three years ago. So… how come he's hearing her voice?

Then it hits him. His mother was a witch. Or rather, a witch-turned-fairy, kind of like Alfea's headmistress – Faragonda. She had control over telepathy, which he had (annoyingly) failed to inherit. But now he remembers that while he didn't have telepathic powers, his mother could easily talk to him in his thoughts – whether it was to tell him off or whatever. _But how come I can hear her when she's dead?_ Riven asks himself.

_Telepathy must work even with the dead then_, he thinks. _But it can't. It's literally impossible. Unless… it means that she's not really dead…_

Spurred by his own thoughts, Riven starts running yet again. He runs to the place he has started calling his second home – his darling mother's grave.

As he runs, he remembers that his mother was the one person he ever truly loved. Well, until Musa came into the picture, of course.

He remembers waking up every morning – before he attended Red Fountain – to the smell of fresh pancakes and home-made mulberry jam. He used to delve his hands into the incarnadine substance when his mother wasn't looking and lick his fingers clean. He remembers clutching her hand tight on his first day of school and how he dragged her into his classroom with him.

Riven suddenly feels a pang of longing at the memories with his mother. He rounds a bend and comes to the gate of the graveyard. Swallowing, he slowly opens it and slips inside. He silently walks right to the back and stands solemnly in front of the grave he has got to know extremely well.

He hears a rustling in the bushes. He turns his head to the side and out steps Darcy from a bush. She is smirking devilishly as she walks up to him. He frowns at her as she stands behind him. Her hands travel up to his shoulders. He shrugs them off as she whispers, "do you miss your mum?"

He frowns as he turns to face her and realizes who the owner of the voice he heard _really _is. It makes sense. Darcy has telepathic powers and he bets that with Icy's magic they can make Darcy's voice sound like his mother's.

"It was you, wasn't it?" he asks, facing her and glowering.

Her smirk grows wider as she winks at him. "It could have been," she says, nodding.

"What was the point?" he asks. "Darcy! Answer me!" He threatens her, when she just carries on smirking.

She starts walking away. Getting a couple of metres away from him, she turns and gives him a smug smile. "It was worth it to see your stupidly scared face," she snickers.

He turns back to his mother's grave and instantly his mother's death plays before his vision.

_Riven watches from the ground as Icy fights his mother. He has cuts everywhere, pouring blood. It hurts too much to even move to help her. So he watches with growing apprehension as the fairy and the witch engage in a one on one battle._

_Hours pass. He knows his mother is getting weaker. Icy is gaining control over her. He ignores his pain as he sits up slowly and tries to stand. Failing drastically, he starts to crawl over to her. _

_Icy shoots an attack at him and suddenly his pain disappears. His face becomes flawless once again. He sees her scowl at the result of her attack. Her focus goes back to her opponent and they resume their fight._

_A while later, Icy has his mother fully under her control. With one last final blast, he hears his beloved mother scream – an ear piercing, heart breaking yell – and as Icy uses her ice to pierce her heart, Riven's mother breathes her last._

Tears fall out of Riven's eyes as he remembers that awful experience. The tears that fall are proof that he is not as cold hearted as everyone thinks he is.


	3. Love

He is – to put it briefly – content. He has everything he could have ever hoped for – and more.

Riven, in his early teen years, wanted to find love. He wanted to find a girl he could call his own. He wanted to find someone to make all (or at least most) of his worries fade into nothing. And he has now found that girl.

Musa.

She is his everything, his world. When she is upset, he is upset. Seeing her happy, makes him happy (even though he would never express this in front of anyone else). When she laughs, he laughs. When she cries, he wants to cry. All in all, it is very safe to say that Musa is frankly the love his life.

Even though he never shows that much affection in front of their friends, when they are alone, he can think about nothing but her.

However, because he does not express his love when they are with their friends (which is more often than when they are together on their own), it causes them to go their separate ways. It is only when he lets her go, that he realizes how much he actually needs her. This has happened on a few occasions and this makes his heart break and make him feel so empty.

Today is one of those days where Riven can forget about everything else that is not related to him and his music loving princess. A day when he can truly focus on her and not on anything else. As of today, they have officially been together for two years (if you don't count the break-ups, which only lasted for day or two anyway. But then, who does?).

Riven gets up early in the morning (earlier than usual, at least), planning on taking his girlfriend out to dinner after they spend time with each other – alone. He is very grateful that Saladin has allowed him to spend a Sunday catching up on the work he will be missing this Saturday. His is grateful that his headmaster understands how very deeply he cares for Musa and what great length he'd go to so he can please her.

Finally, he has enough money to do his for her, to spoil her, and he has plans to make every moment of it special. Where is taking her first –while it is not that expensive – will be something she adores. One of his older friends owns a music studio, with every musical instrument you can imagine. His friend has been extremely generous and has agreed to give them a couple of hours in there.

Next, he will take her round the Museum of Music to show her around so she can learn exactly where music started.

Then, he will take her out to dinner in the poshest restaurant in the whole of Magic city: Food Lovers' Delight. Even though the name does not suggest much, he knows that they offer the most heavenly of foods. He plans to do something very special after dinner: propose. He hopes to make this part extra special.

* * *

><p>Riven and Musa have just come out of the Music Museum. As Riven holds her hand as they walk back to his wind rider, he cannot help but take sneaky glances at her.<p>

Musa is wearing a lime green velvet dress, which ends just above her knees. It has a darker green sash around the waist line, which is made of silk. She has on emerald green stiletto heels, which makes her _almost_ as tall as he is. Almost. She is just a couple of centimetres or so shorter now. Most of her hair is up in a bun, with a plait going all the way round. Her bangs lie untouched at the side of her face. She has on almost no makeup, just a touch of mascara and foundation. She looks absolutely stunning; beautiful, and tonight he has eyes only for her.

She catches him smiling and cocks an eyebrow at him. "What?" he asks, unaware that she had seen him watching her.

"Why are looking at me like that?" She asks.

_Like what_? he wants to say. He stops himself just in time. Tonight, he will go full on affection. Tonight, he won't stop himself from loving her.

"All I'm doing is admiring how amazingly wonderful you look tonight," he says, smiling softly at her.

She smiles back at him and tucks a strand of stray hair behind her ear with her free hand. "Thank you, Riven."

He shrugs lightly. "No need to thank me, sweetheart," he whispers softly.

"No," she says quickly. "For everything you've done for me today."

He chuckles softly, though she is unaware of the fact. _The best bit has yet to come, my love_, he thinks. Instead he settles for placing a quick kiss to her lips and whispering, "For you, Musa, I'd do anything."

They board their wind rider and Riven can't stop thinking about how lucky he is. He places a hand on top of Musa's and drives with the other. He can feel her leaning her head on his back and he sighs inaudibly but contentedly.

At the restaurant, they are shown to their booth in a corner by a waitress who takes their orders. She makes small conversation with Musa, asking her what the occasion for coming to such an expensive restaurant is. He sees Musa smile as she explains that today is their two year anniversary and that he'd wanted to do something special for her.

When the waitress says that they must have a special relationship, Riven pitches in. "Yeah, we do," he says, smiling. He squeezes Musa's hand. "This girl is my world and I love her to bits."

The waitress wishes them well as she leaves again and Riven and Musa tuck into their food. Apart from Musa telling him that this is wonderful, they make no conversation.

When they have finished their desserts and the waitress takes their plates away, Riven fishes in his pocket. Holding the ring case under the table, he takes Musa's hand.

He tells her that she is his world and that without her, he wouldn't be the Specialist that he is now. "When you cry, Musa, I want to cry. I want to wrap you in my arms and make your worries go away. When you're happy, all I can do is smile like there is no tomorrow." He waits for her to take it all in as he stands and walks in front of her.

Getting down on one knee and opening the case – making her gasp in delight) Riven asks her, "Musa, will you do me the honour of becoming my wife and spending the rest of your life with me?" He holds his breath as he watches happy (at least, he _hopes_ they're happy) tears run down her cheeks. She smiles as she whispers, "Yes, Riven. I love you." He slips the diamond ring on her finger as they both stand. He wraps his arms round her waist as her hands rest on his shoulders. He whispers in her ear, "I love you, too."


	4. Worry

**A/N: I'm running out of emotions. I just need one more to complete this. Leave your ideas in reviews please. (For this chapter I had to scrape the bottom of the barrel to find one.)**

Riven sighs. Musa has been injured in a battle with Icy (hey, what do you know? History is repeated. Just his luck) and has been taken to hospital. He has been going to see her every day, and each day there is no improvement. She is not getting better, but she is not getting worse either, which is a good sign to Riven. Staying in the same condition is better than going down the wrong path bit by bit.

The nurses and receptionists might be getting annoyed at him for asking about the same person each day. He knows he has to be patient, but it is hard. He loves her even more than he loves being cocky (and Riven _loves _being cocky. Why else would he do it every day?).

He remembers the day, just a couple of weeks ago, when he took her out on a date. The night that he asked her to marry him. He remembers what he said to the waitress when she said that they must have an extremely special relationship: _This girl is my world and I love her to bits_. His world has been shattered.

Nabu keeps telling him to leave her for a couple of days. When the magician says that, he just wants to punch his face in. But, remembering that Musa would have told him to calm down, he stops himself just in time, making the older wizard give him a half smirk, half smile. Taking deep breaths in and out, he counts slowly from one to ten backwards. He sinks down into the arm chair in the boys' lounge and rests his head in his hand.

"Nabu," he breathes out. "I can't. I need her. I love her."

Nabu looks up from the book he picked up and a look of sympathy crosses his face. Putting the book face down to mark his page, the older wizard crouches down in front of his fellow specialist.

"Riven, listen." The magician appears calm. "I know you need her. Everyone knows you need her. And I promise you'll get her back."

Riven looks at him with one eyebrow cocked up. "Who made you the God of Promises?" he asks. Nabu laughs, straightening up.

"No one. No one made me the God of anything." He walks around and Riven's eyes follow him. "But even the most socially awkward person will be able to tell you that your love for the girl will bring her back."

"What, so if I talk to Timmy-"

"Not Timmy. I was thinking more Elliot or Xander. They're far more socially insecure than our Timmy."

"Right. But love can't bring people back. I love my mother like hell but I can't get her back, can I?" Riven asks pointedly. He winces at the thought of his mother.

"Ah, but… your mother's gone. For good. With a little care, I bet Musa will be right as rain in no time."

"How can I care for her when those stupid, fucking nurses won't let me in to see her?!" Riven thunders, standing up.

"Hey, hey, hey. Calm it down a little." Nabu steadies his friend, holding his hands out. "You don't need to be with a person to care about them Just thinking about them will do."

Riven starts pacing the room. He holds his hands behind his back as he thinks. "I think about her every day. I can't _stop _thinking about her, Nabu."

Nabu sighs fondly. "I know Riven. Believe me, I know."

The wizard suddenly has an idea and hurriedly sits on the floor, with his legs crossed in front of him. He puts his thumbs and middle fingers together on each hand and rests them on his knees. He closes his eyes and concentrates almost all his energy, but leaves a part of himself in reality to get a piece of Riven's reaction.

Riven raises an eyebrow and crosses his arms, looking at the older wizard with the most confused expression on his face. "Uh, what are you doing?" he asks.

Nabu opens an eye to peer up at the magenta haired specialist. "Meditating," he replies flatly, closing his eye again.

"And… what does that mean?" Riven asks again, even more confused.

"Riven, copy me and I'll explain." Riven does as he is asked but with a small grunt. "Basically, meditation is a way for the mind to release stress, worry and anxiety. And sometimes even depression. You concentrate all of your energy-"

"I don't have magical energy like you do. Remember?" Riven interrupts.

"No. Not magical energy. Energy of the mind. Just concentrate it all on the one thing you want to stop worrying about."

_Musa_. "Yeah, and then?" Riven asks.

"Think about the times when you weren't worried about them."

_When I asked her to become my wife. _"Right?"

"And just concentrate on all those times. Don't think about anything or anyone else. Just focus. Go on."

_Right, more times. Uh, when we went out, when it was her birthday and we went to that concert, when she got a pass on her end of semester exams, when we had a whole day to ourselves, when we pretended that we were parents, when we helped everyone to defeat that wicked Baltor wizard, when we helped Timmy find Tecna down in the Omega Dimension…_

Both Riven and Nabu fall into a meditative state; Riven trying to stop worrying about Musa and Nabu trying to stop worrying about the specialist that is sitting in front of him. They start to levitate, unknowingly.

Soon, Riven has concentrated all his energy, and a half hour or so later, he opens his eyes, exhausted. He lowers himself to the ground as he says, "I didn't know that concentrating can leave you so tired."

Nabu opens his eyes abruptly and crashes to the floor. He glowers at Riven, who smiles sheepishly. "Yes," he says. "It's what meditating does. How are you feeling?"

"More… relaxed," says Riven, with a beam on his face.

"No longer worried?" Nabu asks him, getting up off the floor and into a standing position.

"Less than I was before, definitely."

"Told you." Nabu takes a deep breath before making his next statement, worried that Riven might get set off again. "Musa will be fine."

"I know. Thank you, Nabu." Riven replies.

Musa will be OK, he knows that. He just has to _be patient_.


	5. Sympathy

**A/N: Thank you to both xxDragonHeart and Gemma Cane for your suggestions. Both relief and revenge are brilliant ideas but I think I'll go for sympathy to include the other specialists.**

**Last chapter of this by the way. This was fun to write, especially chapter three.**

"She _left _me, Helia!" Riven hears coming from the lounge room. He winces at the volume of his fellow classmate's voice. Even from two rooms away, he can hear the heartbroken specialist grieve through the walls and open doors.

Riven will be lying if he says that he doesn't feel for Sky. After all, that's how he felt when Musa decided to swoon after that record producer, Jason Queen. While Riven decided to conceal his anger and grieve alone, Sky has taken it the other way and is trying to let all his heartbreak out.

"I don't see what that Alexander has that _I _don't! I mean, he's hardly a skilled fighter, and… and he's not even that good looking!" Sky complains.

"Maybe to you, he's not, but Bloom might think Xander's _gorgeous_," says Brandon, rather tactlessly.

Riven can just about see Sky, Nabu, Timmy and Helia glaring at the Eraklyonese squire, and said Eraklyonese squire just shrugging and grinning sheepishly, with a reply of an innocent, "what?"

Frankly, it makes him grin at his brunette friend's stupidity. Sure enough, he can hear Helia go, "Brandon, dude. That was exactly the _wrong _thing to say. And at the wrong time too."

Riven tries to block his friends out and concentrate on his studies. He picks up his purple boomerang from his work desk and flops down in his chair. He throws it aside and suddenly a text message pings up on his phone. Startled, he glances around and catches his boomerang before picking up his phone. A relieved beam breaks out on his face when he sees Musa's text.

A few months ago, she was severely injured after a battle with Icy. He kept going back to see her in hospital and in the end the nurses had to give him fake information (which he'd eventually caught on to) to keep him away. Nabu had shown him a way to calm down and stop worrying, which actually seemed to work: meditation. After a few weeks of staying on complete bed rest with an oxygen mask, Musa had made a relatively miraculous recovery and for that, he was immensely grateful.

He opens up the text, which reads:

_Hi, Riven. How are you? Just wanted to let you know that Bloom and Sky are apparently over. But maybe you already know? - MusicRoxx_

Riven smiles, especially at her pen name. He loves how Musa feels the need to inform him of everything; she is a very social sort of person.

_Yeah, I know. She left him for this Xander guy. Don't know what the heck she sees in him though. That guy's just… weird. - TigersLoveBananas_

Hey, it wasn't him that set his pen name. It was Nabu, and he never bothered to change it. Almost instantly, Musa replies. Riven decides to forget his training for the time being.

_Weird? How so? - MusicRoxx_

Back and forth they go and Riven completely forgets about the other specialists.

_Weird as in… socially awkward. He's Elliot's younger brother. Remember? - TigersLoveBananas_

_Yes, I remember. They're both… sort of… I don't know… - MusicRoxx_

_Ugly? Don't know how to interact? - TigersLoveBananas _

_I guess. I was thinking more along the lines of… lone wolves. I must say that they're good fighters though. Anyway, I have to go. Music beckons to its princess. ;) - MusicRoxx_

_Hey! You're _my _princess! - TigersLoveBananas_

_I know, honey. I'm just messing about. Love you. - MusicRoxx_

_Love you too. - TigersLoveBananas _

Riven smiles as he shuts off his phone. Suddenly, he is aware of Sky sitting on the bed next to his own. The Eraklyonese heir is sitting with his head in his hands, resting his elbows on his knees. Riven doesn't know whether to leave him or go and try to console him.

He decides on the latter option and silently walks up to Sky. He waits patiently, not really caring that it is taking a while. He sits next to Sky and puts a hand on his shoulder. "Sky?" he whispers. "Are you… are you OK?"

Sky looks up at his roommate. It is clear that he has been crying. His eyes are red and puffy and tear stains are evident on his cheeks. "She… why did she do it, Riven?" he whispers, wiping his eyes and face.

Riven sighs. "She's a girl. Girls' minds are warped."

"But… how… how can you not break down when you and Musa break up?" Sky asks.

Riven smiles. "I keep it inside. My heart breaks. My composure doesn't." He shrugs at this point.

Sky smiles sadly. "I guess. But… I loved Bloom. And I still do."

Riven sighs. "I know. But, you're a strong guy, Sky. I thought you would be over her by now. You know, move on?"

Sky sighs again and stands up. "I guess so. I'll try. Cheers, Riven." He leaves the room and Riven feels a leap of his heart at having helped his friend.

**A/N: It's over! The end! Hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for the reviews. **


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